Step 11: BURN!

Step 12: Warnings about plastic

I personally used plastic, HOWEVER, the plastic does melt a bit... and as a result becomes a golden color... I don't think this seriously affects, or ...

Ok, you want to do some engraving on wood, plastic, or on your hand? (no, not really) don't feel like buying one of those expensive wood engraver irons? Want a foolproof way to make nice engravings without worrying about your hand slipping and botching the whole job?

THIS IS FOR YOU! If you like simple, useful, and easy processes, give this a try. this just takes a few simple steps, and is very easy to do. You need NO experience with tools. If you can stick something with tape, and use a knife, you're set. If you can't... well, there's not much I can say about it, but that now is a good time to learn!

Below is a picture of a stickman and a camp fire. That's they type thing you should get when you're finished! The best thing is, it takes very little to master this technique! Once you get the hang of cutting curves on the tape, the rest is simple!

One KEY advantage to this method VS say a spray paint stencil, is that I can make REUSABLE stencils with ISLANDS. That means that I can do letters WITHOUT having to worry about those annoying "legs" that are needed to create blank spaces in the middle of a figure.

*please note* steps 8-12 are on making a stencil for repeated use of a particular design

The thrift stores here often have frames w/ glass in larger sizes for reasonable prices.

I have an idea to make stencils that might be a little more work and a little more expense but I think the end result would be better. There is a product called Looking Glass. This is a spay "paint" that creates a mirror like finish on glass. By masking off your glass with a paper or vinyl piece in the pattern you wish to burn then spraying the glass with the Looking Glass paint you should end up with a mirror with voids that are in the pattern of the design you wish to engrave. Only experimentation will tell how well it would hold up.

May I add that if instead of this template you do one with cooking foil, or thicker. You can put your picture over the foil and only by passing a pencil over the line the surrounds your image it should leave the foil marked for latter cutting. With a thick foil you should not need any other support to have it last long. There are other techniques to engrave metals: with tar and acid but it deserves it's own proper instructable to show it well...

prety cool, my bros and i started burning the plastic on an old toy car with a magnifying glass, and in 2nd grade,me and these 5th grade boys were trying to make a fire with a magnifying glass. It worked but i got scared and kicked sand all over it.(my bro was stupid wen he was little and asked for marshmellows from one of the adults there!)

Hi: Pressure-treated wood is really 'cyanide-treated,' but they wouldn't sell much of it if they labeled it as such. THAT is the stuff you don't want to burn.

I'm surprised that no one suggested that you cut the stencil on the glass *in reverse* so that you can then lay the glass onto the wood with the cut pattern on the bottom of the glass, nearest to the wood. That way, you retain the sharp edge that you get when your stencil is in direct contact with the wood. I would think that the sticky side of the tape is still reflective enough to do its job in that mode.

Nice instructable! I am now planning my future burnings. :) I would rather use cooking foil paper and a glue spray that would easily be unglued after doing the burn. By this way, your template should last longer for other similar burning at other parts of the wood... Thank you!

You can just go to a department/discount stores and buy a picture frame to take the glass out of, pretty cheap and readily available. You can get an 8x10" for about $3-4, larger sizes are $6-12 depending on how big ya get it, provided you don't need like poster size.

Also, many glass shops sell cheap glass if you need an unusual size, to say make a 3' long by 8" high engraving in a piece of wood.

We had made about 20 different ones for Reunions, Yard Sales, etc. using a wood burning tool, this might have saved some time. Now we just use a dremel tool with metal templates, but this is a nice cheap way.

I did it with a piece of glass that I had chemically etched some art work onto. It worked great other than my lens is too small and I need to find a larger one. The light went right through the glass but was diffused by the etching. This is really cool and I will post a photo in the near future. I may have to resort to this if I don't win the laser!

Ah, good, so it worked? GREAT, if you post a picture (with your permission) I'd like to try and add it to the instructable! was there any problem with the glass fogging up? regardless, good too hear! I'll probably be picking up a few window panes from my grandfather's house... he's got a ton of old windows in his basement... like I've mentioned though, perhaps you can get an old overhead projector from the local school, the've got a VERY nice fresnel lens that would make the engraving process go very quickly!

Twenty-five years ago, I bought a decent Fresnel lens from Edmunds Scientfic for next to nothing. It was really a lens from an overhead projector -- perhaps a factory reject. My brother used it more than I did, often melting lead ingots my father had around for mating old cast iron waste pipes. He sometimes used it to set-of his homemade black powder. (side note -- he's now a machinist in his 40's and is a Rev. War reenactor who makes his own muskets and cannon, but buys his powder.)

Lo-and-behold, Edmunds is still around and still offers the exact same 11" square Fresnel lens for just $5.95! Shipping starts at $6.75, so you would probably want look around for some other goodies and/or get a friend to go-in with you and get several lenses.

Ok, so I tried the etched glass thing with a Fresnel lens because the magnifying lens I used before was too slow. The Fresnel worked awesome and burned the wood with a dot the size of a dime. Unfortunately the glass did not hold up so well and shattered after about 20 seconds. I guess I'll just have to use the laser when I win it. ;)

You're right, HOWEVER, the magnifying glass is also probably of the same substance, so it's absorbing/reflecting it as well... it'll absorb the UV, and probably the deep IR. If you use plastic, well... that's a whole different issue. BUT, I think it's just from having a concentrated heat source in one spot. Uneven heating. you're literally burning in a small spot under the glass, that's concentrated heating!

The glass likely didn't hold up because, along with all the other energy from the sun that is being focused is IR (infrared). MOST soda-lime and Silica glass is opaque to IR (means it's as good as painted black). IR is high energy, basicly it is 'pure heat' and the glass is absorbing all that, and heating just like the wood underneath absorbing all those other frequencies of light that are transmitted through the glass. It's just a fact of life, unless you spend more for IR-transparent glass or some other clear medium that won't absorb energy (i don't know what to suggest that does that though)

Hahaha, I tried the piece of glass from a picture frame. For holding up, worked great! As for the engraving... not as good as expected... the tape peeled off, and, low and behold, that yellow stuff on the plastic wasn't JUST the plastic "carmelizing" it was condensed sap from the wood! Very interesting... I'll soon be trying the paint method, which I tried on the plastic. Seemed to work just fine... But, the Fresnel lens took out the glass? Ahahaha... try again, but try to limit the burning power a bit... I'm sure you don't want to have to clean up too much glass... we'll see about the laser cutter... :P

Hey! this is a great idea. I own a sifn shop and can use this cheap (thrifty) way to do small signs. I will use my plotter/cutter to cut metallic vinyl in reverse and see if my stencils hold up under the heat. I'll give it a try and post back my results. Thanks!

Hey! good thinking! I've been thinking that some metal stencils would be the best way. So far my research has shown that the tape method works best, because the sap in the wood can't just condense on the piece of glass, it can escape and react with the oxygen to make smoke.

Well, with full sun (when the sun is at it's zenith works best, but, until the sky actually starts darkening, there's no problem) it usually takes me 1-2 minutes to do an engraving. I can probably finish a complete engraving (start to finish) in 5 minutes. BUT, you need a large magnifying glass! unless you have one that's greater then 5 square inches (that's >13 cm squared for you metric users) it's going to take you a LONG time, and, if the magnifying glass is small enough, it may do nothing at all!

Great idea! Here's an enhancement on your technique. I have seen metallic transfer foil that you can buy online ( maybe in art/stationery shops as well) where you print out something using a black laser printer/photocopier, put this foil on top and run it through the laser printer again. The heat bonds the foil onto the toner on the page but does not stick to the paper itself so once you peel the foil off, you end up with silver or gold where you had black toner before. So to get to the point, I wonder if this is possible with overhead projector film? Ie print a negative image (ie print black where you want white) onto some OHP film, bond the silver foil onto it and voila, you have a custom made silvered template for any graphic/text/halftone photo you want to engrave onto wood as described in the instructable. If the film doesn't stand up to the heat next to the wood, put a layer of glass in between. I reckon it'd be great if that worked since you can then engrave anything you can print out. Would love to see someone try it & post the results or write another instructable. Benjamin

Interesting idea! I think perhaps the overhead plastic would melt, which would pose a problem... hmm.... you'ld have to do it on glass (which might be a bit harder) Then again, couldn't you take the paper, print white toner of the design, then iron the toner onto the glass. Then soak the paper in water until it's pulpy, and rub it off... like you do for circuit boards. I don't know if the white would be enough or not... it's an interesting thought though, I'll have to try it...